No I believe it should still be taught in schools.

In a sense, I think cursive should be more utilized, but with education it was more the stretching of a child's mind. In today's age, cursive has been replaced by both computers and the email and we will be lucky if we can write at all in the future.

Perhaps I am a man that has a shoe in both worlds as a person that heavily writes, I love the audience the world has given me, yet the qualities of which I try to impart are found in those handwritten cursive letters my Grandma decided to save.

In a sense, I think cursive should be more utilized, but with education it was more the stretching of a child's mind. In today's age, cursive has been replaced by both computers and the email and we will be lucky if we can write at all in the future.

Perhaps I am a man that has a shoe in both worlds as a person that heavily writes, I love the audience the world has given me, yet the qualities of which I try to impart are found in those handwritten cursive letters my Grandma decided to save.

Erica--Like you, I loved cursive writing and I continue to do so to this day. Mine has altered over the years as age, practice and the execution of calligraphy has altered my style. While I understand the argument for the stopping of cursive instruction, I for one believe that it is a good way to practice patience and fine motor skills. And, yes, your signature is a measure of who you are. It doesn't have to be pretty but it is yours and yours alone.

I think this reveals a bigger problem that really challenges our schools in general - why do we continue to do the things that we do in schools? For many, the answer is "just because we have always done it and it feels like the right thing to be doing." It's called the curse of the "status quo." Cursive is just one example. Why do kids have off during the summer? Last time I checked, I have no students who work on farms and its a major issue and expense for working parents to find placement for their kids. Why do the "big" kids go to school first when we know that the little ones are wide awake at 7am and the high schoolers' brains are still asleep. Why do we have a 6.5 hour day when lots of great schools in other countries go for 8 or 9 hours?

It's funny, the world is constantly evolving but our schools pretty much look the same as they did in the 1960's. Sure, there are some new "bells and whistles," but the nuts and bolts haven't changed much. Student engagement has reached an all time low despite what you may read about the occasional Lego robotics competition (which only involves a handful of kids from each school anyway.)

As always, I challenge readers to stop by their local school and see if you can walk the halls with an administrator. Seems fair enough since your taxes foot the bill. See what you are getting for your money. Sadly, our "best" schools have some of the most abysmal instruction you could ever imagine. Worksheets, lectures, and chaotic hallways...see for yourself. I will admit, they do a great job of teaching to those low-level tests! Thank God for $700 SAT prep courses on the weekends...

Seems like cursive should be the least of our worries ... last time I checked, art teachers are still allowed to teach calligraphy...

By the way, when was the last time you wrote a letter using cursive? Simple block letters wouldn't have worked? I think mine was a letter to a girlfriend in 8th grade...

Lastly, there is absolutely no correllation between handwriting, language usage, vocabulary, spelling or the actual mechanics and grammar of writing so I am eager to hear the arguments.

I'll bet the farm you can't correctly write a cursive Z or a Q and you have probably survived quite well. Try it right now...

In the interim, I'll be corresponding using my computer and smartphone like the rest of the developed world. Anyway, who has time to write letters when there are plenty of pigs to kill with avian projectiles?

My signature will continue to be digital or an artful scribble (I was pre-med for 2 semesters and love doing calligraphy in my spare time).

lol bff's!

This is such an interesting topic of discussion, and one that recently came up in my own life. I teach at a public school in Baltimore City, and my students recently requested that I teach them how to write in cursive. They complained that they were never taught how to write in cursive and were embarrassed because they didn't know how to sign their names. Many insisted they could take notes more efficiently if they could write without removing the pencil from the paper. They were jealous of the one or two students whose parents taught them how to write in cursive. My dilemma is exactly the one you mention - when these kids are one or more grade levels behind, how can I justify spending valuable instructional time on an "irrelevant" skill like cursive? But then again, am I shirking my responsibility to these students by refusing to teach them something that they so desperately want to learn?

Handwriting matters ... But does cursive matter?

Research shows: the fastest and most legible handwriters avoid cursive. They join only some letters, not all of them: making the easiest joins, skipping the rest, and using print-like shapes for those letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. (Citation on request— and there are actually handwriting programs that teach this way.)
Reading cursive still matters -- this takes just 30 to 60 minutes to learn, and can be taught to a five- or six-year-old if the child knows how to read. The value of reading cursive is therefore no justification for writing it.
Remember, too: whatever your elementary school teacher may have been told by her elementary school teacher, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over signatures written in any other way. (Don't take my word for this: talk to any attorney.)

Yours for better letters,

Kate Gladstone — CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
Director, the World Handwriting Contest
Co-Designer, BETTER LETTERS handwriting trainer app for iPhone/iPad
http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com
518/482-6763 (day and night)

Funny, but I was just discussing this with my grandson this afternoon. He told me that one of his teachers said that they were no longer teaching or stressing cursive writing after the 2nd or 3rd grade. He had to sign a form today and had to print it...he couldn't even sign his own name! He is 13 and an honor student. I seriously doubt that we are the only culture that expects a person to be able to sign a document in their own handwriting. . What I hear in some of the above arguments is that our children are not intelligent enough to learn to write AND learn math, science and the other basics. I beg to differ.

The #1 enemy of cursive is the keyboard. What if the keyboard was to disappear ?

I am thinking of new technology like "iJot": http://www.ubitouch-studio.com/ijot/index.html

In the end, the most practical way of writing will survive, and that might well be cursive !

"I seriously doubt that we are the only culture that expects a person to be able to sign a document in their own handwriting."

A signature does not have to be cursive. In fact, a signature does not even have to be hand written in order to be legal. A signature can be stamped, lithographed, typed, hand written, etc.

We might be one of the only cultures who believe that cursive has some sort of legal power though.

"I seriously doubt that we are the only culture that expects a person to be able to sign a document in their own handwriting."

A signature does not have to be cursive. In fact, a signature does not even have to be hand written in order to be legal. A signature can be stamped, lithographed, typed, hand written, etc.

We might be one of the only cultures who believe that cursive has some sort of legal power though.

I'm not sure why cursive writing is still in the curriculum anyway. When do we really use cursive? It is only used when signing our names and that is only sometimes. I think that time could be utilitzed by teaching more of the required subjects. Are they being tested on cursive writing on the state test? Nope. Since our country is so driven on data and test results why even bother to teach cursive.

Learning to write cursive is an exercise in cultivating an aspect of the self..., of the soul. The final result is a person's signature on their work..., on their imprint on the world.

At the risk of sounding like Socrates, when he baulked at the notion of the written word as it threatened the oral tradition, not teaching cursive writing is a reflection of the pervasive pressure we are under as a collective, the pressure we are under as adults [and educators] and the same pressure we put on our children through the curriculums we subject them to. 

Three years ago, I had the honor of giving my then twelve year old grandson a sketch pad, a small bottle of ink and a quill pen.  He later said that, "...it was the best Christmas gift he had gotten that year."  Here, for a youth who I later learned did not even know how to answer a hotel room phone as he was unfamiliar with how to operate it,  the alchemy of quill, paper and ink appealed to his heart.  

Will we allow that creative part of psyche to wilt in deference to that part ruled by Logos and the QWERTY~keyboard?

I had some question of whether I really needed another fountain pen this year for Christmas, a generous gift my own elderly parents are ready to impart, but after reading this discussion, I am even more inspired to demonstrate to my grandchildren on Christmas morning the ways in which a fountain pen improves one's handwriting, an art that so long as we have these dialogues will never die.

Whenever I hear my friends pushing the virtue of learning cursive I remind them of how much time was taken to learn it. I remember in second grade (that's when my public school in Michigan) pouring over every word to make sure it was perfect, and still taking a step back and thinking that my printing was much better and that I'd just never be a good artist. Then I ask my friends who often they use this skill today. For the amount of time it took, I don't see the pay off today. I agree with the commententer above, of course kids could learning reading, math, writing AND cursive, but does the time it takes to put into it really make sense considering the lack of value mastering it contains? If you want your child to learn it, teach it to them (It's okay to teach your own kids skills you want them to have, it doesn't always have to come from a teacher!), but let us focus on something that will really help them succeed in the real world.

cursive is only one of the traditional school activities that is on the chopping block. Here are others:

using a ruler

cutting with scissors

making a snowflake

tying shoes

memorizing a poem

singing on key

reading music

typing with all your fingers and without looking at your hands and without making mistakes

public speaking basics

proper manners (in a variety of situations, both formal and informal)

rules for a variety of sports games

how to use basic hand tools (a saw, a hammer, a screwdriver)

how to sew simple projects

how to prevent a venereal disease

how to tell time using an analog clock

These are all things I was taught in school before the ninth grade. My ninth graders have never seen most of these things taught in school. If they know them, they learned them elsewhere.

@RobinB -
Not sure where you teach ninth grade - must be in the city! My kids go to county schools and learned most of them before 6th grade. I will admit that I taught them manners, how to use tools, how to sew and how NOT to get a VD. As for typing without looking - I still cant do it and have managed so far!
When you have 6.5 hours in a day to teach kids, you have to make choices. I can't wait until we really take a hard look at some of the crap that kids do that is an utter waste of time. My kid has been sitting in a GT class for three days working on a packet of worksheets. Next week, kids who actually attend school will be "rewarded" with videos while the teacher kicks back and counts the hours down until xmas break.